A book rack is intended to afford a book reader a reading comfort and is useful especially for holding a large-sized hardcover book in a manner permitting the book reader to read the book comfortably and to turn the pages of the book easily.
As shown in FIG. 1, a large-sized bound book has a front cover 10, a back cover 11, a book-binding headband 12, and gatherings 13 held between the front cover 10 and the back cover 11. Located respectively between the front cover 10 and the headband 12, and between the back cover 11 and the headband 12 are hinges 14 and 15, which are intended to facilitate a reader to turn the front cover 10 and the back cover 11. The headband 12 is connected with a book spine 16, thereby causing the open pages 17 and 18 to be unable to spread out fully, as shown in FIG. 1. The reader is often annoyed or even frustrated at having to press the open pages 17 and 18 with hands. However, when the open pages 17 and 18 are spread out fully, the displaying positions of the open pages 17 and 18 are such that the reader is bound to strain his or her eyes.
Referring to FIG. 2, another large-sized bound book is shown comprising a front cover 20, a back cover 21, an arcuate headband 22, gatherings 23 fastened to an inner spine 24, and hinges 25 and 26. As shown in FIG. 2, open pages 27 and 28 can be spread out fully without using a reader's hands. However, when the book is placed on a desk, the arcuate headband 22 is flattened by the weight of the book to make the leafing of the book awkward.
A book rack or stand is intended to overcome the problems described above. A conventional book rack of the prior art is generally provided with a book support having a surface of an appropriate inclination to facilitate a reader to read the book comfortably; nevertheless such a prior art book rack as described above is defective in design in that it is fixed and cumbersome, and that it does not solve the problem that the flattened arcuate headband 22 can cause the leafing of the book awkward.